Father-and-son training combination Mark and Levi Kavanagh are looking for a fortuitous autumn campaign with First Immortal after his first-up win at Caulfield.
First Immortal’s autumn campaign launched with victory in the Listed Anniversary Vase (1600m) on Saturday which may lead to the gelding heading towards two ballot exempt races for the Spring Cups later in the autumn.
First-up is likely to be the Mornington Cup (2400m) next month which provides the winner a free ticket into the Caulfield Cup followed by the Andrew Ramsden Stakes (2800m) at Flemington in May which provides a Melbourne Cup ballot exemption.
Ridden by Blake Shinn, First Immortal ($4.80) scored by a half-neck from The Summit ($17) with the $2.90 betting site favourite Nugget a short-neck away in third place.
Mark Kavanagh was emotional post-race discussing the performance of First Immortal.
“He’s never won over a mile, he’s never won first-up, so we might be having a bit of fun,” Kavanagh said.
“We’ll just take him along gently and see how we go from there.
“We’ll just give him a light autumn into a couple of staying races and then just ease up and aim for the spring.
“Levi’s pretty ambitious, and I reckon there’s only one Cup…”
Shinn, who was associated with First Immortal during a three-year-old winter campaign, said the stayer had developed during a light summer break.
“I was looking at him on the TV when he was walking around and I just went, ‘wow’,” Shinn said.
“He paraded absolutely beautifully and he’s just a bit more of a furnished product.
“Back last prep he was running great races in good spring races, but just probably mentally wasn’t quite there.
“But they’ve done a great job and this prep he’s come back a bit better in terms of application and probably physically is a little bit stronger.
“His last jumpout indicated to us that he’s come back bang on track, and he replicated that today with a wonderful win.”